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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Hugs to all my blogland friends who happen to be suffering from the effects of Sandy. It is so strange to be sitting here on the other side of the pond, wondering if you are all OK. And what kind of damage has been done. My parents are still dealing with high winds and high waters on the shores of Lake Huron. And here I sit making cards. Lucky me. So big hugs...

Started with a heart TP embellie I created. Swiped paint across the raised letters and hand-stitched around the distressed edges. Made the lacy pouf from tulle ribbon and added the heart bead to the center. Stamped the notebook BG (have you seen this card from Virginia L.?) and a flourish before adhering the heart.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Just under the wire. Again. But I made it so enough said. Saw this inspiration board last week over at The Play Date Cafe.

Thought, "mint - ugh". But I love how it's combined with leather and gold. Hmmm. Then I get this catalog in the mail with some little gold scrolls - "open all to see which prize you have won" blah, blah, blah . Then I see the sketch over at Retro Sketches

and also know that I have a "shiny" card still to make for HYCCT #1215B. Ta da.

So, except for the fact that I nearly missed the cutoff, and that my photo had to be taken in my basement, I'm happy. Love the touch of glamour the gold candles and bling (like the doorknob) add. And that brown/beige PP is actually flocked and damask. It's a stretch to Retro, but I did get the idea there. Don't know whether this should be a congrats or bday card so no sentiment yet. What do you think?

What can you see in the air? Well, butterflies of course. That was my take on the HYCCT #1220 titled "Hope is in the Air." I find the butterfly a joyful creature. Definitely hope-inspiring when you think they start out as ugly worms!

This was such fun to make. Dylusions spray inks on and a butterfly cut from recycled tissue paper. A stitched strip of crepe paper. A vertical sentiment repeated. Voila.

And not meaning to bore you, but another challenge is called "Vital Signs" (HYCCT#1218) which is kinda tricky. Blood pressure? Weight? OK, how about heart rate. Enter my fave stamp of late and my fave CAS design.

Used some autumn colors this time for the "Autumn Leaves" challenge at Simon Says Stamp. And added a stamen punched from foil CS for a little extra something. And cuz my spacing of the hearts was a little off this time ;) Also a sentiment in gray this time around.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Here's another card for HYCCT at Splitcoast Stampers. This challenge #1219 is "A Birthday in Pink". As in frilly, frou frou, cupcakes and doilies. This is the closest I can get to that...

The detail photo above shows the damask BG I stamped for a bit more interest and frou! Otherwise, pretty simple. Stamped CS and cut a present from it. Added washi and the washi flower. Stamped a "shelf" for it to rest on. A touch of lace and a lacey sentiment.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Another twofer. For my first card I used the technique from PTI's Make it Monday - using positive and negative die cuts. As amazed as I always am by die cuts themselves, it seems to be the cards made with negatives that really catch my attention. Hmmm.

Anyway. Where did I get my color combo? No idea. Just felt right. Let's just call it vivid violet meets lethal lime green ;)

Made a rough layout first -very helpful. I started by picking the PP (this is also going to the HYCCT #1214 which calls for "text". There's text on this PP). Picked colors for CS. Die cut roses and leaves. Die cut tags. Die cut leaves extending over the tag from the tag. Since I don't have a stamp for the leaf die, I inlaid the leaf (embossed with numbers - is that text too?) into the negative area. Attached the other leaves onto the tag, then popped up the roses. Stamped sentiment on smaller tag and adhered along with seam binding bow. Stamped cardbase with text stamp. Attached tag. Added some bling for balance.

Second card kind of evolved from the first. Had an interesting creative process with this. HYCCT #1224 calls for the "kissing technique." Happen to have a still-unused Hero Arts cling stamp which I figured would work well for this technique. Used a still-unused BG clear stamp to kiss with. Whether it was the combo of the two materials or because I used dye ink... the result was kinda crazy. So I decided to use just a strip of the purple madness. But how? Went to the PC with my purple strip and looked at old CPS sketches. Ta da. Hello #111. TIP: Even though Tami M. is stopping CPS, there is an archive of all the old sketches!

Now, you might know that I rarely follow a sketch 100%. So this is what happened.

Creative process you ask? More like "a series of fortunate? unfortunate? events." Yellow? It's across from purple on the color wheel. Polka dot stamp? It was already out. I actually kissed it with the text stamp (from my first card since it was still laying around) once it was inked up but you really can't tell. Washi? Happened to be laying on my ironing board. Sentiment on a "tab" of crazy PP? Was the first 6x6 pad I grabbed with colors that I thought could work with this - was thinking light turquoise. Picked this. Result? It's either funky or ugly. Haven't decided.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Two more for the HYCCT challenges over at Splitcoast Stampers. One of these cards is from my stash (in other words "the old me") Can you pick it?

Did the background in the photo give it away? Or the card itself? hee hee Back at this time I owned one pad of PP. Times have achanged...

The first is for the Courage challenge (HYCCT1205). Kathy says "...inspire strength and courage to a patient. ... Something with a dose of humor is great, too." I think the sentiment from Inkadinkado (kid's quotes) is both inspiring and humorous.

The second is for Show off your Cupcakes (HYCCT1202). Self-explanatory. Are you playing along yet?

Friday, October 26, 2012

Listen to this chicken soup challenge (HYCCT1223): "use a chicken (hens and roosters are acceptable too ) on your card, and elements that spell the word S-O-U-P." BTW, Sabrina, the hostess chose this because she remembers cooking up chicken soup for a friend every time she had chemo. What, pray tell, starts with a "U"? Think about it!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

It's time to blog hop with Papertrey... but you already know that, don't you?
Let's get to it. There are a few really cool color combos to choose from and I picked this one:

Two grays, two teals and a star. Here she is.

I wanted to do something with a star cuz I love the look of the right photo in this inspiration board from The Creative Paper Trade. A twofer so to speak. See the shine in the photo (mirror, lamp, stars)? If you look closely you'll see that I used some silver ink on the wreath too. Gives it that "little something."

Heat embossing (notice how I stamped the image with yellow before embossing to give the skyline a glow). Distress inking. Sentiment printing with the PC. Stamping of the music scores.

This is the Tuesday Trigger:

And there is a "Music Soothes the Soul" challenge in HYCCT at Splitcoast Stampers. Pink plus music. I'm in! I really liked the title so decided to use it as my sentiment. I used a freebie font from Creating Keepsakes cuz it's kinda soothing too.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

In this post I told you about taking "creative liberties" and having an adventure with a card. Well, I liked the outcome some much I decided to do it again.

This card is going to the Hope You Can Cling To campaign (Splitcoast Stampers). There is a challenge to "Show What You are Made Of". In other words, "journey to your stampy happy place and find that go-to design principle that makes you the happiest and most comfortable".

Tough to define your own card style,eh? I tend to be all over the board. But I'm slowly getting there... Colors, but lotsa white space. No fear of mixing stamp sets. Importance of sentiment font/style. Hearts, yeah they just make me feel good. Always include a little one when I sign my name on a card or letter. All that's missing would be some polka dots cuz they make me smile too. Oh, and practical gal that I am - easy to mail.

Am also playing with the challenges at Splitcoaststampers for Breast Cancer Awareness month - Hope You Can Cling To. A challenge a day (yeah, I'm late to the party, so what's new?!?). On the first I used 3 punches and a die (HYCCT1206). On the second, strips (HYCCT1204).

"Bow-dacious", how clever is that? That's the challenge over at Little Red Wagon. These tags of mine got pretty bow-dacious, don't ya think? Close up below.

This was actually a spontaneous project thanks to these 40 or so gourds which were growing in my weed vegetable garden. Spent Saturday out cleaning up the garden and harvesting these lovelies.

What to do with so many? Give 'em to neighbors. Hmmm, means a project. Which I really didn't have the time for, but oh well.

Cleaned up the gourds. Found hoarded containers to dress up a teensy bit with recycled packing paper and napkins. Had to make some sort of tag and when I saw these pincushions from Melissa P. I had my design. Found the color challenge for Crate Paper (and I used the Prudence collection) and voila.

Also used the hb sentiment (love how the open font matches the sketch style of the rose) from "Retro Foundations" and "Typically Teen" for that swash of paint. Here she is.

Stamped the flutterby with off-stamped orange, pink, red and violet and fussy cut it. Same procedure on the swash which I then layered with vellum and a border die cut from leftover distress inked CS from this card.

Play Date Cafe. What a great name for a challenge blog. My kids are past the days of play dates, but the name makes me smile every time I go over there to play. Happy Anniversary PDC!

This photo makes me absolutely swoon. My three bridesmaids - whoa, blast from the past - wore red, fuchsia and violet raw silk dresses... so this is so me. But when it came down to playing with the colors I had a really tough time. You too?

Tried to figure out why and decided that since red, violet and blue are all so close together on the color wheel... it is the "glow" in the photo that makes it all work. So I had to go for that.

My go to for glow, distress inks. Don't own the PDCC named colors, but I took Spiced Marmelade, Worn Lipstick, Festive Berries, Shaded Lilac and Chipped Sapphire and this is what I got! Inked up Neenah CS, cut it into two panels, spritzed some Perfect Pearl/water msit, die cut the words, printed the remaining text on the PC and assembled. It actually turned out as I imagined. Yippie.

This was a spin off of the same idea, using up the positives and some scraps of digital paper. Notice how my printer cartridge is losing its color. You know me, waste not want not.

Completely different look, eh? Crazy, this craft we love. I'm also playing over at Passion for Papertrey - yeah, they're back and worldwide now too. Happy Monday. I may be back.